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Areas in which the computer may help  Acquire and store empirical observations  Using digital media to store data (sound/images/films) make data easily accessible  Internet as a source of data  Analyze qualitative data  Software can support structuring and data reduction of qualitative material (mainly text, but increasingly sound and image as well)  Organize and structure reading  Reference management software supports structure and a systematic approach to the reading and writing processes

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Your reflections on the use of IT tools  Advantages  Added rigor in coding  Consistency  Speed and flexibility facilitate the gradual revision of coding  Creates an auditable trail of the analysis work  Enables quantification  Helps integrate different kinds of data  Enhances creativity

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Your reflections on the use of IT tools  Risks  Premature conclusions may be drawn as software gives false impressions of objectivity  Software may force unsuitable methodology on the researcher  Software restricts creativity (e.g. autocoding)  The researcher becomes lazy  Vulnerable to technical breakdowns  Over reliance on the software’s ability  Distance the researcher from data  Creates a focus on the details, but misses the “big picture”  Hampers creativity by forcing the researcher to define variables early on  Fatigue  Time consuming  Researcher looses the flexibility of the more intuitive approach

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What is NVivo? A tool to:  Keep track of and explore qualitative data  Generate and store ideas about these data  Link ideas and develop theories based on the data  Test theories

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The basic structure of NVivo Source/Document system Node system

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Basic functionality  The document system helps to  Store and retrieve data such as interview transcripts, films, observation notes, etc.  Write and store comments about the data  Search text for keywords, certain quotes, etc.  The node systems helps to  Create a structure of categories that represent important concepts in the data  Easily change this structure as the research evolves  Document reflections on and definitions of different categories  Link data to the concepts  Develop and test relations between concepts

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NVivo 7

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The document system

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The node system

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Coding

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Retrieving/ searching

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Analysis – to ask questions  By searching text  Advanced searching tools and automatic coding supports the exploration of the data  By searching the node system  Exploring single nodes or combinations of nodes helps find patterns and generate and test hypotheses  “System closure” enables analysis in several steps  Search results are saved as nodes and can thus be queried further